You could safely say I
had one of those “cradle vocations.” I was a naturally
rambunctious, adventuresome and, my parents would be quick to add,
troublesome kid. Yet it was all healthy. I am the
third oldest of 10 children. For a while I was
the only boy among six girls. My first prayer that
I can remember is asking for a baby brother. God
was listening and graciously gave me two.

We were a
“normal” family, but at the same time special. From the
outset my parents realized they were not taught how to
educate us in a concrete way in the faith. Both
were teachers, so they knew that just fielding questions does
not count for any sort of proper education. So my
Mom picked up a book full of practical activities to
make the liturgical year come alive for the family. Being
an artist, she made the activities fun and interesting (until
we hit the teenager years when we would shrug these
things off…). My Dad helped out with content, applying his
gift for explaining complex things in a simple way, giving
us Sunday Catechism to each one on our own. He
also read us lives of the saints before we could
read, filling our hearts and minds with a different sort
and caliber of heroes.

The vocation then started from earliest
years, in a somewhat humorous way. We Mullans did not
have a television (I thank God for this gift). So
we had many games, books and sports. Among these games,
I played the priest at “Masses” with my siblings (as
opposed to always playing “house”). As my later interest in
acting would manifest, I was quick to pick up the
idiosyncrasies of priests. My family tells me (I honestly can’t
remember) of a family trip to New Mexico when we
encountered a particularly lively Norwegian priest whose practice it was
to weave back and forth gripping the microphone, illustrating his
homily with grand gestures. This was quickly added to my
repertoire and has remained a family joke.

I remember well at
age 10 the impact a young dynamic diocesan priest in
the parish whose holiness and enthusiasm for his own vocation
brought. He worked with boys in a fun and yet
serious way that attracted us all. One day in the
car, after going for pizza, I announced that I wanted
to be a priest. However, in the middle school years
these experiences were put on the back-burner. I changed schools,
became active with theater, sports and friends. Oddly enough, religion
remained throughout my favorite topic and I had a pride
in the Catholic faith now that I mingled with people
from many backgrounds.

By high school I wanted to be
a physicist, having had a great science courses in those
years. I took my first real physics class in 10th
grade. I began looking for other interest areas. Religion was
knocking at the door again.

In the spring of 10th
grade everything changed. I had been trying to pray for
some time, maybe for the first time as a teenager
in a personal way. Since I didn’t “feel” anything I
announced to my Mom that God isn’t really interested in
us here below, nor is he real enough to be
“heard”. My Mom laughed and said “Well, have you prayed
about that?” I retorted “Well, how can you pray if
that’s your problem?” She gave me a little novena, a
popular devotion to pray over nine days for an intention
which in this case asked for roses as a “sign”
of the prayer being heard. I had nothing to lose.

Family picture 1998

“God, are
you there? And, second, are you listening?” These were those
daring questions I placed to this silent God. Well, on
the day when that sign was supposed to happen I
had forgotten about it. My Mom had forgotten that I
was even praying a novena (I only told her this
story 10 years later). The family had left the house
for shopping and when we came back, on the porch
was a vase full of roses. Now there was one
thing clear in my mind: We have never had roses
delivered to my house. Sure enough, they were delivered to
the wrong address. But that was my day for the
sign. I made a bee-line for my room, knelt down
beside the bed and cried, whispering, “God, you heard me.”

Somehow that was what I needed to begin a new
type of relationship with God. Now he was a friend
who listened and I began to want to do something
for him too. What had made me happiest in this
world had always been God. Throughout my youth Jesus was
that great friend I had. In the early teenage years
I hadn’t spoken as often with him, but he did
not forget me. It was in this year I took
up the idea again of the priesthood as a way
to help others come to him too, a God who
listens, a God who is active in our daily lives,
interested in everything we do, and has a plan for
each one of us. What my parents had always “educated”
began to stand up on its own two feet.

During
my junior year at high school we had a Career
Awareness Program week. I wanted to have a “seminary” experience.
Originally I tried going to a diocesan seminary but for
some reason the phone call was never returned. We turned
to the Legionaries of Christ since I had been on
a fun boy’s trip in middle school. It was there
that I really discovered my priestly vocation. The enthusiasm and
optimism of the congregation’s youthful “legions” completely transformed me. I
worked that summer at one of their boy’s camps and
that is when I realized this was exactly what I
was looking for. I had a mission now and lived
my faith actively in the last year at high school.
I left for Cheshire, Connecticut, the Legion’s novitiate, the day
after high school graduation and my family was very supportive.
Since then, I have traveled the world, accumulated very enriching
experiences and yet deep down it has always remained the
same: love for Christ and souls. These are the roses
that I pray will strew the path of my priesthood.

Michael Mullan is 32 years old. He was born just
outside of Philadelphia and moved soon after to Elkton, Maryland.
The family has ten children, four of whom have consecrated
their lives to God. He attended Salesianum High School in
Wilmington, graduating in 1992. He was active in local theatres,
won national and local chapter awards with the school in
Model U.N., and was president of a local chapter of
Explorers. He also founded a boy’s club, still active in
Delaware, that aims at the integral formation of youth. Michael
joined the Legionaries after of high school. He has since
then spent most his 14 formation years abroad: Germany, Spain
and Italy. During studies he has achieved a Masters in
Philosophy at the Pontifical Athaeneum Regina Apostolorum and is currently
working on his Masters in Theology.